This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review. Also my tags may have spoilers in them so be forewarned before checking out full review. I received this book from Berkley Publishing in exchange for a honest review. These opinions are my own.

 Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒
Heart & Feels:💞💞
 Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖📖
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧
 Overall View: ✨✨✨.75


First Impressions
Dark Hope I had high expectations for and I went into it with certain hopes and I knew that Christine Feehan would deliver a solid story and there were many factors into this story that truly worked for me. I love the set up of the characters originally and how we see their paths cross. The battle scenes and the world building elements were TOP NOTCH as always. The way that Feehan goes so flawlessly into the details and really implements a story that becomes so atmospheric for the setting is so rich and vivid in every single paragraph. You know exactly what you will receive in the world building when its Christine Feehan at the helm. There were some lacking elements that I struggled with as a romance reader though but it was still a book that packed quite a punch.

First Line
In the distance, dark clouds gathered over the sea in an angry roiling boil.

The Main Protagonists
 The Hero: Silke Vriese Reinders
 The Heroine: Benedek Kovak

Summary
Silke has always know what her duty and role would be in life. She would be a healer, a protector and a demon slayer. She knows that there is a war coming to their quiet community and she won't be able to do it on her own. She also has always known that she has held the soul of a Carpathian warrior and is ready to give it back to him. Benedek is one of the oldest of Carpathians, but has also had to change in order to keep himself from giving completely to the darkness. He heads towards his lifemate, sensing her and knowing that he must get to her before its too late as there is a vicious enemy on the horizon that their people haven't quite seen yet. From the moment Benedek meets Silke he is determined to be the lifemate that she deserves and destroy the evil that would destroy them both if given a chance...

What I Loved
There were so many aspects to the story that I truly loved. Lets first start with the characters. I loved their personalities and they surprisingly resonated with me. Benedek is one of the best tortured heroes. We see what happened to him when he was such a young child and young man. We see how he survived the unsurviveable and had the determination to carry on and how he rejected evil actions of those that raised him. And has survived for centuries longer than many through just a strength of will. Then we have our heroine, Silke, who has always embraced her duty and never rejected it. She has always known her role as much as what was conveyed to her, and tried to be a woman of honor and loyalty and strength.

Then we have the plot and world building elements to the story. Now this is where Christine Feehan reigns supreme in what she writes. She is so able to flawlessly portray a world that is so in detail and really makes the setting come alive for the reader. I know its not for everyone, but I love that I can almost sense the world that she creates and its done in such a way that its almost as if I can feel and hear and see exactly what is being portrayed. Its why she is a MASTER in storytelling and this book really conveys how well she can capture those little details and have you as the reader just living in the moment. And its so majestic but resonating at the same time. I loved the battle scenes, they were so intense and there are DRAGONS and I loved the dragons so so much. We also get so much more on the beast, and I loved the companions to Benedek. They were so entertaining in so many ways but love how well they work together in these battle scenes.

Then we have the small moments of connection between Silke and Benedek...the scenes that we do get were so intimate and genuine in every way and loved how they embrace what they have found in each other. These were honestly my favorite aspects of the story. I loved these quiet moments between these two and they just left me swooning in the scenes that are written.

What I Struggled With
I just want to be really honest so you know what you are getting with this book and I really think the author is changing what she is delivering at least in this series and it really makes me sad. Because what we didn't really get was the focus of the relationship and the romance in this book and its probably why I have struggled with her books since Dark Song. Is the lack of the romance focus in the stories of late. I am not sure if this was the author's decision or something maybe the publisher has been pressuring her into. But it was very prevalent in this book. I think this is the first time I have seen hardly any romance from this author. I just wish it had 100 more pages to focus more on the relationship, I really think this book would have been more resonating if it had more relationship building in it. The relationship felt so rushed in so many ways and there wasn't very many moments that this couple had together. The focus was the battle scenes and while I love what Feehan delivers on that front, on the romance front it was lacking. It felt too quick from them claiming each other as lifemates to loving each other when we didn't see much focus on their relationship. So I felt like there was such a big piece of the story missing. It makes my heart sad if this is the direction Feehan is going towards though, because what has made me fall in love with her writing is how she develops her romances, they are so top notch and it will really break my heart if we don't get that in the future anymore.

Overall View
Dark Hope is a tantalizing tale that digs deep into the evils of the world and crafts a vibrant and edge of your seat thrilling paranormal tale of joining forces, stimulating romantic moments and captures the zest of beauty in life and beyond.

Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Paranormal Romance
Character Types: Immortals/Vampires, Kick Ass Heroine, Healer Heroine, Tortured Hero, Alpha Male
Themes: Small Town Setting, World Building A Focus
Tropes: Fated Love, Arranged Marriage

Book Perspective
3rd POV

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
Plot Conflict

If you like these authors, I recommend This Book
Nalini Singh
Patricia Briggs

Recommendation For Reading Order
Yes I would recommend this series being read in order due to the serial plot lines.

Steam/Spice Explanations

Simmering cup of tea---soft warm touches and light intimacy
 Warmin' by the fire- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments.
Steamin' up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes. 
Blazing fire to the building-The prime focus is the sex scenes, scorching hot, and could burn one. Less focus on the emotional intimacy to the relationship.